Wilderness Adventure Therapy Program

Our residents come to us having lived dramatic and addicted lives. They have often abandoned activities which they once enjoyed; sports, outdoors, relationships, hobbies, etc. The word “fun” is synonymous with using drugs and alcohol, as they have attended to little else for some time. Here at Jacob’s Ladder, we have learned that including wilderness adventure therapy into our holistic addiction treatment program assists men with overall recovery and becoming an active participant in the community.

In early sobriety life seems lackluster and the thought of not using forever seems boring, daunting and maybe impossible. In addition to letting go of the need for chemicals we are also asking our guests to let go of dramatic living, compulsive behaviors, codependent relationships (which are often dramatic and exhilarating) and many other maladaptive ways of living. This is the mission of the Jacob's Ladder wilderness therapy program. It is to “recover” that which was lost in addiction.

We seek to instill within our residents a sense of awe about the world in which they live. We will assist them through our work on the farm, interaction with nature, music and art programs, the best wilderness adventure therapy, physical workouts, mindfulness based cognitive therapy and group outings. The goal is the reconstruction of what is termed “fun” whereby that word is expansive and includes a wide array of seemingly mundane everyday life occurrences as well as the exhilarating events.

The truth is that learning to enjoy life is as critical an undertaking as anything else we teach at Jacob's Ladder. Sobriety does not mean a lifetime of begrudgingly tolerated days of endless boredom and misery. This is what many imagine, especially upon early arrival. At Jacob's Ladder the facilitation of these adventurous experiences represents our core mission and are integrated in all facets of our personalized addiction treatment models.